


All that you can’t leave behind

by Taeyn



Series: cassian said I had to [4]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Canon Backstory, Cassian and Bodhi knew each other before, Difficult Decisions, Emotions, Friendship, Gen, Heartbreak, Kaytu and Cassian make a good team, Love, Pre-Canon Era, escaping an Imperial Facility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 07:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9481649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taeyn/pseuds/Taeyn
Summary: “So we’ll go?” Bodhi clutched his sleeve, daring to hope. “We’ll go together? I won’t let you down. I won't let you down again.”Cassian gave a faint nod, watched the pilot’s mouth tremble with relief.“You never did,” whispered Cassian. “You never will.”





	

**Jenoport, 5BBY**

Cassian veered round the passage, a wild, scorching numbness bit into his shoulder. They missed because he stumbled, he stumbled because he missed the door.

It was that close. It was that easy.

Cassian used the second while the weapon re-energised to press his stolen datacard against the identity scan. The plan was falling apart, but he didn’t have to. Focus. _Bring it in, bring it back._

“Kaytu,” Cassian hissed into the comlink, securing the door behind him. C-level security access, another thirty seconds won. “Bring the ship to north exit Delta-Three-Echo instead. Now. Copy.”

“Copy,” the droid confirmed. A beat of crackling, and then, “I have eyes on Delta, it _isn’t_ clear. Can you hear me? _Not clear._ ”

Cassian heard. He also heard the blast of the security door being thrown from it’s hinges, shouts doubling in the rain of shrapnel that followed.

“Cassian? Are you ignoring me, I am telling you, that exit is _not-_ ”

“Bring the ship!” The words burst out, vicious and desperate. His officer’s uniform was darkening down his sleeve, his hand slippery and dull. _Don’t think about the damn droid, remember the facility blueprint and the way out._

He picked up the comlink again.

“You did good today, Kaytu,” Cassian whispered, took a last, burning gulp of air. “You did good.”

And then he ran.

-

There was a reason they decided on south exit Bravo-Four-One. That choice, like several others pertaining to the mission, had been informed by a thorough cross-comparison of facts and variables, the likelihood and severity of various risks, proximity to the intended target zone and clear evacuation path post-delivery. While K-2SO admittedly disliked his support role- where _else_ would an Imperial droid be of use, if not in an Imperial facility staffed by hundreds of Imperial droids?- he at least felt confident in his ability to contribute these parameters and recommendations to the infiltration of the Jenoport base.

In the silence that followed Cassian’s comlink cutting out, no part of that confidence remained. North exit Delta-Three-Echo was in a restricted terminal. The trading craft they had obtained _specifically_ for the purpose of waiting near the trading entrance would not be admitted without question. Even if he _could_ come up with a vaguely plausible lie for the ship’s necessity, the Empire did not utilize Kx droids as pilots, and his presence would raise suspicions regardless.

K-2 paused, adjusted his internal queries. Cassian had downloaded a schematic of the facility well before plotting the particulars. Directing the majority of his computational power to scanning and decoding, K-2 halted the search abruptly when he came upon the keywords he was looking for. He straightened to his full height, readied to leave the craft.

It was what Cassian would have called a long-shot.

Bad ideas always were.

-

Making people believe you were someone else, Cassian thought, focusing on anything but the bright sting down his arm, was often nothing more than letting them believe _they_ were.

“Breach in Zone 5- control deck,” he snapped at the trooper who tumbled into view. “Why hasn’t anyone locked down the lower levels?”

“I- I was just about to,” the soldier lied, scrambled to the nearest emergency unit. “That’s the procedure, that’s what I thought we should do!”

Cassian gave a curt nod- _yes, correct, well done_ \- then slowed his pace to a brisk walk.

An enforcer droid was stationed at the mouth of the next gate, and for a fleeting second, Cassian felt his throat tense in hope.

But he had only just heard Kay on the comlink. Strange what desperation could make you believe.

“Restricted terminal. Clearance required,” the droid intoned, towering mechanically into Cassian’s path. With his good hand, Cassian gave an impatient flick of his forged identification, eyes averted below his cap. Several floors below, he heard the whine of a lockdown siren.

“Clearance denied.”

The droid reached for something- energy cuffs, a stun blaster? Cassian didn’t have time to find out. Dropping the now-useless card, his fingers darted for the tool concealed in his sleeve. No more than an alloy spoke, he swiftly drove it beneath the droid’s wrist plating, hitting a subroutine circuit and causing a momentary glitch in motor function.

It was enough.

Cassian ducked aside as the siren rose to a wail, a manual release code opened the gate instead. Three more floors, five more gates.

If he hadn’t been close to losing consciousness, he could have laughed. _Three more floors, five more gates._

_Why didn’t I tell Kaytu to take off while he had the chance?_

The halogens flickered above him, the air cold and heavy as he stumbled on. In the spattered light, Cassian saw a familiar human face.

But it couldn’t be. Not since...

“Cassian…?” came the whisper, breaking with the strain of it. “No. You’re not. You’re-”

Cassian’s legs gave way beneath him, the man caught him before he hit the floor. In the hovering liminal before the world turned black, Cassian saw the crest on Bodhi’s flight suit.

-

The most difficult part was walking slowly.

It had been 972 days, sixteen hours and eight minutes since Cassian had deactivated K-2SO’s Imperial loyalty protocols. Allowed to act on his own impulses- and even generate new ones- K-2 had found less and less need for the coding which governed his physical movement patterns, and had eventually overwritten it in favour of a more organic schema. This not only supported greater flexibility in his reactions, it also permitted K-2 to learn and adopt gestures which were distinctly _human_ in nature, and that Cassian was better able to intuit and understand.

This last development, K-2 found oddly pleasing. But it was not what he needed today.

“Droid. Assist with inspection on landing pad five.”

“I wholly concur in full with this request,” K-2 responded, then wished he hadn’t. The officer seemed preoccupied however, hurried toward the facility muttering orders into his headset.

Landing pad five was not ideally situated for K-2’s purposes, but he only had to travel in that direction until the human was out of sight. Then, with a methodical stride that felt conspicuous and uncomfortable, K-2 redirected his trajectory toward a seemingly innocuous support beam at the edge of the hangar.

This was where a maintenance console was kept.

Resisting the urge to check his peripherals, K-2 unlocked the metal panel and plugged into the dataport. In amongst the surge of information, he maintained a portion of concentration on something Cassian had once said to him.

_Act like you’re meant to be there, and everyone else will too._

“Droid, what are you doing?”

A deeper voice this time, the uniform registered in K-2’s core memory. _Ground Team- Regulation Hazard Prevention._

“I need to briefly divert power away from the main facility,” K-2 answered calmly. This was true, after all. The Imperial’s eyes narrowed, uncertain.

“Have you got safety sign-off for that? Whose orders?”

K-2 stared at him a few moments, his processors whirring with the strain of assessing the download. He was almost in, almost there…

The lights in the hangar flared, snapped, then sank to darkness.

“No,” said K-2. Catalogued the man’s eyes widening in surprise. “Mine.”

-

There was pain, the sound of footsteps. Stark white had been replaced with a dim green, sharp edges turned to shadows. Cassian’s arm was slung over the pilot’s shoulders, he was half-walking and half-dragging himself on.

“Why are you here?” Cassian said quietly, his expression gritted neutral as a squad of troopers jogged past.

“Why are _you_ here?” Bodhi hissed, trailed to a sob. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. The explosion. Carida. I _saw_ you…”

Cassian silenced him with a terse noise, led them down a narrow passage.

“No time,” he breathed, pushed forward. “North exit.”

“Are you with the Alliance?” Bodhi said suddenly, his tone taking on a note of wonder. “Are you a _rebel_ now? Is that what this incursion is all about?”

What breath Cassian had wouldn’t form to words, his glance could have meant anything.

“Cassian!” Bodhi’s whisper was a plea now. _One more floor, one more gate._ “Cassian, please, I hate this. After the protest, after your father... I didn’t know what to do. I had nothing left.”

A mechanical voice scraped over the facility intercom- _Backup systems activating in ten, nine..._

“Take me with you!” Bodhi wailed. “I want- I want to defect! That’s what they call it, right? I’m a trained pilot, I could be useful, I could-”

Channeling the last of his energy into raising his head, Cassian met Bodhi’s stare. More need, more scars, they’d both seen things now. The youth he’d known had been raw, easily persuaded, far more easily read. The rebels could use him, yes. But they could use any resource chance threw in their way, Cassian doubted he’d last a week in the field.

The light at the last gate was still blinking.

_Seven, six..._

“I’m not afraid,” Bodhi choked, a tear spilling from one eye. “Not in the way you think. Don't leave me here. I… I know I can do this.”

Cassian could see the flight suit better now. Bodhi was an ensign, most likely cleared to transport non-sensitive cargo and artifacts. Not much in the way of thrills, but his missions wouldn’t end in a blaze of X-wing fire either. Cassian smiled, aching and delirious.

“So we’ll go?” Bodhi clutched his sleeve, daring to hope. “We’ll go together? I won’t let you down. I won't let you down again.”

_Four, three..._

Cassian gave a faint nod, watched the pilot’s mouth tremble with relief.

“You never did,” whispered Cassian. “You never will.”

With the hand by his side, he set his weapon to stun.

He wrapped his arms around Bodhi one last time.

-

Hours later, long after they’d abandoned the trading ship in a remote quarter of Jenoport’s wilderness, K-2SO realised Cassian had gone. At first the droid waited, as patiently as anyone who could produce a second-by-second update of the increasing probability of misadventure. By the time the planet’s suns were setting, he could no longer ignore the escalated threat posed by the unfamiliar jungle, perils that Cassian, under stress, had on prior occasions proven to be oblivious.

He found Cassian by a waterfall, right shoulder strapped in a bacta bandage, blaster in hand. He was staring, empty, his cheeks bruised and wet. K-2 hesitated.

“It’s okay,” Cassian said softly. “I’m alright.”

“Would you prefer I maintain a reasonable personal distance?” K-2 responded, searching for comparable instances where Cassian had exhibited these emotions. He couldn’t find any.

Cassian didn’t answer, and K-2 found himself disinclined to simulate further scenarios in which Cassian insisted on being alone.

“...no,” Cassian exhaled, sucked another breath.

The droid moved closer, tried to stare at the same vacant space that Cassian was apparently immersed in.

“I was very displeased with you today,” K-2 offered after a while, his tone unaffectedly neutral.

Cassian shot him an asymmetrical expression, one side of his mouth quirking up at the corner.

“You were very _displeased_ with me?”

“Yes,” K-2 stated. “Next time, instead of complimenting my performance whilst on assignment, you might do well to provide me with some relevant update on your status. A position coordinate, for example.”

“ _Bring the ship_ sounded pretty relevant to me,” Cassian replied, an eyebrow raising with the words.

“To a location that was impossible to access.”

“Funny, because I remember being picked up in a ship.” Cassian shrugged, his intonation increasingly layered. “In a location just like that.”

K-2 turned away, distracted. The re-projection of Cassian’s fate had he not succeeded was placing an unfamiliar strain on his circuits.

“Cassian,” he snapped, “the disorganisation and confusion of Imperial forces is _not_ a tactic we can rely upon in future-”

“Kay,” Cassian said gently. “I’m sorry.”

He placed a hand at the droid’s arm, K-2 glanced round in surprise.

“...for scaring you.”

K-2 loomed stiffly, found it difficult to process a response.

“Did you even find what you were looking for?” he said curtly.

Cassian gave a bleak smile, dragged the logbook from beneath his ruined jacket. K-2 knew he should download the data immediately, transfer it to backup as soon as they returned to the U-wing. But Cassian’s hand was still resting on his arm.

“What… should we do now?” the droid ventured. Cassian’s tears were still damp on his face. This didn’t feel like victory.

Cassian looked out toward the waterfall, clenched his jaw and shut his eyes. His hand squeezed tighter.

“We keep going,” he said.

-

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! title is taken from the u2 album of the same name. c: kudos or comments are always adored and appreciated, this film and characters are my whole heart, I love flailing about them too much! :’’) <3


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